Conceptual metaphor about personality in English and Vietnamese idioms of body parts

TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC ĐHSP TPHCM

Nguyen Ngoc Vu

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CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR ABOUT PERSONALITY IN ENGLISH
AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS OF BODY PARTS
NGUYEN NGOC VU*

ABSTRACT
Research on idioms from cognitive linguistics’ point of view, especially through
conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy, has been growing steadily among
semantics linguists. From the conceptual metaphor theory of cognitive linguistics, this
article examines the role of conceptual metaphor about personality in English and
Vietnamese idioms with the aim of evaluating the importance of conceptual metaphor in
idiom’s illiteral meaning formation.
Keywords: conceptual metaphor, conceptualization, conceptual domains, idioms.
TÓM TẮT
Ẩn dụ ý niệm về tính cách con người trong thành ngữ có chứa yếu tố
chỉ bộ phận cơ thể người tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt
Việc nghiên cứu thành ngữ từ quan điểm ngôn ngữ học tri nhận, đặc biệt là dưới góc
độ ẩn dụ ý niệm và hoán dụ ý niệm đang ngày càng được giới nghiên cứu ngôn ngữ quan
tâm trong lĩnh vực ngữ nghĩa học. Với hướng tiếp cận từ lí thuyết ẩn dụ ý niệm của ngôn
ngữ học tri nhận, bài báo khảo sát vai trò của các ẩn dụ ý niệm về tính cách con người
trong thành ngữ chứa yếu tố chỉ bộ phận cơ thể người của tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt để đánh
giá vai trò của ẩn dụ ý niệm trong việc tạo lập nghĩa hàm ẩn của thành ngữ.
Từ khóa: ẩn dụ ý niệm, hoạt động ý niệm hóa , miền ý niệm, thành ngữ.

1.

Introduction

Metaphor has long been acknowledged to be an effective rhetorical device,
especially in literary languages. According to the common understanding, metaphor is
a device by which the name A of an object “a” is used to name after objects of “b”, “c”,
“d” as there are similarities among these objects. In other words, metaphor is a device
for meaning transformation based on the rules for connections of similarities. In the
work of “Metaphor we live by” which was published in 1980, Lakoff and Johnson
proved that metaphor was not simply related to using a certain object to refer to other
objects. Metaphor is not only employed in literary language, but also comes up very
frequently in our daily dialogues. This key point of conceptual metaphor theory
proposed by Lakoff and Johnson has drawn special attention in the field of cognitive
linguistics. In this paper, English and Vietnamese idioms of body parts about
personality are analyzed and contrasted from the light of conceptual metaphor theory.
*

Ph.D, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education; Email: elearningvietnam@gmail.com

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The paper then discusses how illiteral meanings of these idioms were created and
implications for language teaching.
2.

Conceptual metaphor and meanings of idioms
In the opinion of cognitive linguists, metaphor is a device through which the
human vague experiences are conceptualized based on the more detailed experiences.
Lakoff (1987) suggested that many of our experiences were formed by metaphor
through a limited number of image schemas, such as those about containment. This
image schema was created by a container with inner space, outer space and viewed in a
three-dimensional space. Lakoff’s survey pointed out that the image schema of
containment was applicable for metaphor with a large number of categories of nonspatial concepts. For example, although the categories of linguistics and emotion are
non-spatial, they are still conceptualized into a container as in the terms of “empty
words” and “to be in love” in English.
Conceptual metaphor once viewed at the most basic level is the basis for the
formation of meanings for many idiomatic structures. For example, the idiom “to let off
steam” can be split into two constituent parts of “let off” and “steam”. Its general
meaning can be understood as the discharge or release of anger. According to analysis
by Lakoff (1987) and Kovecses (2002), anger is commonly understood metaphorically
as “MIND IS A CONTAINER” and “ANGER IS A HOT FLUID IN A
CONTAINER”. In this case, the establishment of the relations between the explicit
meaning of “steam” and the implicit meaning of “anger” can be fully understood both
experimentally and cognitively because steam carries power that can get the engines
running. “Steam” is viewed as heated water vapor and the discharge of steam expresses
the anger gradually cooling down. To clarify the role of conceptual metaphor in the
formation of idiomatic meanings, in the scope of this article, we shall focus on
analyzing the conceptual metaphors related to the conceptual domain of human
personalities through a number of idioms in English and Vietnamese containing
elements of human body parts.
3.
Conceptual metaphors of human personalities in idioms containing elements
of human body parts in English and Vietnamese
3.1. Personalities referred to as materials
In English and Vietnamese, we can come across a number of idioms describing
human personalities through materials. For instance, to describe someone of kind
nature, who is always caring and helping the others, the idiom “to have heart of gold”
can be used as in this example: “She'll do anything for anyone - she's got a heart of
gold”. Gold, since the ancient times, has been considered a rare metal with multiple
functions and been admired by everyone. In this case, we see that gold is used to
describe the worthy human qualities through the icon of a golden heart. So, the
conceptual domain of human personalities has been conceptualized under the

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conceptual domain of materials. Also with the metaphor “PERSONALITIES ARE
MATERIALS” in English, there are other idioms as follows:
 He wouldn't help his own mother if she needed it - he's got a heart of stone.
 She has a heart of glass and is emotionally weak.
 She is of pure heart.
The idiom “heart of stone” refers to those who are too tough, emotionless, and
unmoved toward difficulties of the others. So, the use of the icon of stone to depict
human personalities is obviously due to some reasons, not arbitrariness. Similarly, we
all know that objects made of glass are very fragile. From this point, one can infer that
people whose hearts are made of glass are emotionally weak, prone to emotional shock
and in need of protection from other people. The idiom “of a pure heart” carries the
original meaning of purity, without the mix with other materials, and is used to refer to
people who have good qualities, with almost no character flaws. In the cases of these
idioms, we see that the implicit meaning is very closely related to the explicit meaning,
and that we can understand such implicit meaning without much difficulty through the
conceptual metaphor of “PERSONALITIES ARE MATERIALS”.
In Vietnamese idioms with elements of human body parts, the conceptual
metaphor of “PERSONALITIES ARE MATERIALS” is quite widely used. However,
while the heart is conceptualized by English people to be where human emotions and
personalities are contained, the belly is considered to be a container of human thinking
and emotions in the Vietnamese traditional culture. Therefore, the conceptual metaphor
of “PERSONALITIES ARE MATERIALS” primarily comes up in idioms having
elements related to the belly such as “gan” (liver) or “lòng” (bowel):
 dạ ngọc gan vàng (to have a stomach of pearl and a liver of gold)
 gan vàng dạ sắt (to have a liver of gold and a stomach of iron)
 gan chai phổi đá (to have a liver of wood tar and lungs of stone)
 gan sành dạ sỏi (to have a liver of crockery and a stomach of stone)
 lòng lim dạ sắt (to have a heart of ironwood and a stomach of iron)
 lòng son dạ sắt (to have warm bowels and a stomach of iron)
 mặt sắt đen sì (to have a blackened iron face)
 mặt sứa gan lim (to have a jellyfish-like face and an ironwood-like liver)
 mặt chai mày đá (to have a face of wood tar and eyebrows of stone)
The color of gold never fades, and pearls are always bright forever with time.
Therefore, the idiom “to have a stomach of pearl and a liver of gold” is used to refer to
the human faithfulness. Also with such conventional understanding about the properties
of materials, the idiom “to have a liver of gold and a stomach of iron” is used to depict
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the lovers’ faithful hearts, who vow to wait for each other no matter how long it may
take. In the idiom “to have a liver of wood tar and lungs of stone”, the wood tar in this
case is a natural resin emitted by wild trees and shall become very hard once dried. The
liver being as tough as wood tar, and the lungs as hard as stone in this case refer to a
person who is very brave, courageous, and fearless when confronting challenges. The
idiom “to have a liver of crockery and a stomach of stone” conveys a similar meaning.
The idiom “to have a heart of ironwood and a stomach of iron” or “to have a jellyfishlike face and an ironwood-like liver” also features a similar conceptualization.
Ironwood is a precious hard kind of wood; and iron is also a wear-resistant kind of
metal. So, the people whose bowels as hardened as ironwood and iron are those who
are strong-willed, never breaking their words once said, and not influenced by anyone
when already having decided to do something. Jellyfish is specie of mollusk, with
umbrella-like shape, drifting about the sea regardless of day or night. Therefore, the
people who have “jellyfish-like face, ironwood-like liver” ostensibly look weak and
cowardly, but when coming across things they become tougher, more gritty and daring
to endure every torture than the other reckless. Particularly, the two idioms of “to have
a face of wood tar and eyebrows of stone” and “to have a blackened iron face” are
often used for criticism and negative intentions. The idiom “to have a face of wood tar
and eyebrows of stone” refers to the people who no longer know what shame is.
Regardless of how they are scolded or ironically talked about, they keep despising it as
if there is no problem at all. Iron face is a blackened face, looking emotionless and
soulless like a piece of iron, thus the metaphorical meaning of this idiom is for
ridiculing those who have power but are too mean and pitiless to the poor. Through the
above examples, we see that the conceptual metaphor of “PERSONALITIES ARE
MATERIALS” appears quite frequently in idioms containing elements of human body
parts in Vietnamese.
3.2. Personalities reffered to as the shape of the eyes
The idioms that contain elements of human body parts in English and Vietnamese
also include a part that conceptualizes human personalities through the shape of the
eyes. For instance, the idiom “to have eyes like a hawk” is used to refer to meticulous
people, who always pay attention to details, such as in the following example: “The
supervisor has eyes like a hawk, so be careful she doesn't catch you eating at your
desk”. The meaning of this idiom is derived from the image of the eagle that is always
soaring high to bring everything into view when preying and is ready to swoop down
anytime. In addition, English has the idioms such as “to have bedroom eyes”, “to have
goo-goo eyes”, or “to have googly eyes” to indicate perverts who try to seduce other
people. These idioms depict the big eyes, always looking at the others with lust with a
negative connotation. So, when English people comment on someone using these
idioms, the person who is subject to such comment is not respectable. Similarly, the
idiom “to make sheep's eyes at somebody” borrows the image of a sheep’s big naïve
eyes to describe someone who is constantly staring at other people and making them
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uncomfortable. So, all of the above idioms describe the conceptual domain of human
personalities through the shape of the eyes. The conceptual metaphor of
“PERSONALITIES ARE THE SHAPE OF THE EYES” obviously plays a role in the
formation of meanings for the above idioms.
The conceptual metaphor of “PERSONALITIES ARE THE SHAPE OF THE
EYES” also comes up in idioms containing elements of human body parts in
Vietnamese as in the examples below: mắt trắng môi thâm (to have white eyes and
dark lips)
 to mắt hay nói ngang (a big-eye often talks perversely)
 môi thâm mắt trắng (to have dark lips and white eyes)
 mắt dơi mày chuột (to have eyes like a bat and eyebrows like a mouse)
 mắt cú vọ (to have eyes like an owl)
 mắt diều hâu (to have eyes like a hawk)
 mắt trâu đực (to have eyes like a male buffalo)
 rậm râu sâu mắt (to have dense beard and hollow eyes)
 mắt như mắt lợn luộc (to have eyes like a boiled pig’s)
 mắt ốc nhồi, môi chuối mắn (to have eyes like snails and lips like fat bananas)
People who are indicated with “to have white eyes and dark lips” are ugly. This
idiom refers to people with wicked intentions, ungratefulness, and harmfulness.
Conventional understanding tells us that the bats' eyes are small but delicate, and so too
for the mice’s. These two species usually work surreptitiously at night time. So, the
idiom “to have eyes like a bat and eyebrows like a mouse” is used to indicate crafty
people. We tend to guard against those people when communicating with them. The
idioms of “to have eyes as dry as a snake “, “to have eyes like an owl”, and “to have
eyes like a coin-tossing hole” have similar meanings, and are often used to describe
people who look dishonest and betraying. Idioms such as “to have eyes like snails and
lips like fat bananas”, “to have eyes like a boiled pig” or “a big-eye one often talks
perversely” all use the images of eyes which are big, always wide open and staring out
emotionlessly to refer to those who are impertinent and unruly. So, in the conceptual
metaphor of “PERSONALITIES ARE THE SHAPE OF THE EYES” there are
similarities between English and Vietnamese idioms.
3.3. Whether the hands being clean or dirty indicating personalities
The idiom “to keep one's hands clean” or “to have clean hands” is derived from
the fact that after a crime is committed; blood often stains on the criminal’s hands. It is
the conceptual metaphor of “CLEAN HANDS ARE A SIGN OF SINCERITY” that
helps us understand the metaphorical meaning of this idiom: “a clean person”. In
another case, likewise, the idiom “to wash one's (dirty) hands of something” has the
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